Shania Twain turned down Prince’s offer to make “the next ‘Rumours’” together when he reached out to her back in 2008.
The Man! I Feel Like a Woman! hitmaker opened up about missing out on the opportunity to work with the late music legend during an interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music 1.
Revealing he contacted her amid her divorce from then-husband Robert “Mutt” Lange, Shania says Prince was keen to seize the opportunity and turn her heartbreak into a new album in the vein of the Fleetwood Mac classic.
“I missed out on that because Prince called me when I got divorced,” she recalled. “We’re on the phone and he said, ‘Shania, why don’t you come to Paisley Park? I want to make the next ‘Rumours’ album with you.’
“That was the weirdest thing he could have ever have said, because Mutt – his standard of what he thought, where I could live as a standard – was that album, ‘Rumours’ album.”
However, Shania insists she didn’t feel ready to work through the devastation in the studio, adding: “When Prince said that to me, I’m like, ‘Oh man, I’m not even divorced yet.’ I’m just like, ‘I’ve been dumped,’ but I’m not, obviously, divorced yet. I’m like, this is way too ironic what you’re saying. Right? And I’m such a major Prince fan.
“Then on top of it, I hadn’t found my voice yet,” she continued, referencing her battle with Lyme disease that ultimately saw her lose her voice and embark on a journey to regain her ability to sing. “I was still working on it. I was so far from finding it still.”
That wasn’t her only reservation – according to Shania, she was concerned Prince’s manners could have become a stumbling block in the studio.
“I’m on the phone with him and I’m swearing like I always do. I mean, because I’m just at home,” she recalled, “and he said to me, ‘Well, if you do decide to come to Paisley Park, there’s no swearing allowed here.’ So that was another strike.
“I’m like, ‘Oh no, I love you so much, but I don’t think I could get through writing and recording an album without swearing, somewhere along the way! What are you going to do to me if I swear? I might have to stand in the corner or something.’ I wasn’t sure about that.
“I don’t think I was ready for what all that was going to mean for me. I didn’t give up on it or anything, but then he died.”
Shania released her sixth album ‘Queen of Me’ this week, featuring the singles Waking Up Dreaming and Giddy Up!.
In a review of the album, RETROPOP said the album sees the country pop superstar “push forward and continue to carve a legacy on her own terms, as a top-tier writer and producer”.
‘Queen of Me’ is available now.
